dumpster.penguin wrote:On a recent eastbound trip, the Lake Shore lingered 18 minutes in Rochester. Numerous contributing factors: the station did not announce which end would be New York vs Boston, so boarding passengers were misplaced; crew of the New York section opened only one door, as far as I could see; passengers were welcomed aboard before about a carload of disembarking passengers had managed to fight their way to the exit!

The problem is Amtrak loves to combine the worst things about airlines (limited entrances) without the things that balance it out (specific reserved seats). If everyone had seats (either picked or randomly assigned at booking) by car and seat number, they could open all the platforming doors at every stop. They just need to have the system only sell seats based on which cars will platform at origin/destination station.

Here's something interesting.I'm on 49 this morning, and while boarding, I noticed that an Amfleet I made it's way into the consist. I understand that coachclass between the two Amfleets is similar, but there are some differences. Especially on a long-distance train like the LSL, the reduced legroom in the Amfleet I appears to me to be a class below the Amfleet II. Especially when everyone paid the same ticket fare for coachclass, but some may have gotten the smaller legroom. Luckily, I'm in a II. But how often does this happen, and is it justifiable? Seems to me like it's unfair to do this. I've heard some say that Amfleet II coachclass is comparable to Amfleet I business class, which furthers my point.

dumpster.penguin wrote:On a recent eastbound trip, the Lake Shore lingered 18 minutes in Rochester. Numerous contributing factors: the station did not announce which end would be New York vs Boston, so boarding passengers were misplaced; crew of the New York section opened only one door, as far as I could see; passengers were welcomed aboard before about a carload of disembarking passengers had managed to fight their way to the exit!; and after that mess had resolved itself, the train made a second stop for first class.

I had expected the new high platform to bring improvements. But the Lake Shore resists.

As a frequent passenger of corridor (PNW, Detroit, and NEC) and LD (both east and west), my biggest gripe about the entire corporation: consistency. It just ain't. It's like there's a game going on of "how can we mix it up the most?". Boarding procedure, seating procedure, dining reservation procedure, bed lowering procedure...

When Amtrak was a basket case (arguably until 2000-ish when ridership made it obvious that Amtrak was never really going to go away), it's understandable how the culture was rather laissez-faire. If you're going to be gone next year, why bother writing a boarding procedure and training crews?

But now it's clear the entire network is here to stay. And crap like this is the absolute worst way to make a first impression. "Hi, welcome to Amtrak, guess which way we're going to board the train today... psyche!!!, you're wrong, now go wait in another line, walk around with your bags, ooops, no dinner for you, we started at the other end of the train today".

Any McDonalds has consistency with talent that is bottom of the barrel. Why? They have intense training, and little pictograms if you forget. Put the bun down, then the burger with cheese, then the tomato, then the upper bun. If McDonalds can get bottom-level talent to use boiling fry grease every day, Amtrak can figure out boarding procedures.

Could it have been an Amfleet 1 business class configuration? That's almost as good as an Amfleet 2.

If not, they would probably try and put all the short haul passengers in that car. NYP-Buffalo Depew has 2 trains comprised of only Amfleet 1s every day anyway, and the coach fares don't place any particular premium on the LSL, so anyone staying in NY gets shoved in there. Later on, people who boarded in upstate NY bound for Ohio and PA replace those who got off. Then finally the people boarding Cleveland and beyond. With this, no one sits in the Amfleet 1 longer than an Empire Corridor passenger going to Niagara Falls .

They were three hours late leaving Chicago due to trouble thawing out and starting up enough power to operate

The above cost them their slot on the host railroad, and freight traffic cost another hour or so

Because of the accumulated lateness, the locos had run enough hours to reach a mandatory inspection interval. At ALB, not only did the train split, but all power had to be swapped

Sounds like similar things happened to me on the LSL I was on coming back from Texas leaving CHI 12/28/17 (actually 12/29/17 12:35am, according to ASMAD!) It didn't arrive into NYP until 12:42am, over 6 hours late! I actually got to see CLE in daylight! By the time I got to ALB the shops were all closed! Helpful hint in ALB I found out too late on my westbound trip: Get bottled water from the gift shop, not from Starbucks, as it is cheaper. There is more to the story, you can go to the other message board if you wish to hear more.

johnpbarlow wrote:The New Year's Eve arrival of train 448 did not go well .. so close and yet ...:

Based on the somewhat confusing text of the final paragraph and given I don't see a 449 en route to Springfield, MA currently on Amtrak's Track A Train map, it looks like passengers on the westbound 449 of 1/1/18 are being bussed to Albany/Rensselaer. I'm guessing late arrival of the 448 made it not possible to turn the equipment in time.

48 passengers who were expecting to arrive in NYP on New Year's Eve before midnight also arrived after midnight! 12:08am to be exact! What a mess!